Made people laugh at work, don't know why...

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So, a few weeks ago we had a meeting which everyone from a group of teams had to attend, to discuss what the teams had been doing. This is of little relevance to anyone below management, as the teams' functions have little to nothing to do with each other, so I quickly became bored and started browsing the web on my phone. I started paying attention when my boss started talking about what our team was doing. When he mentioned a particular project, he asked me to explain to everyone what it was about. The thing is, the project only really has relevance if you have a whole lot of background knowledge in software development, IT security and ISPs, and these other people do not have this background knowledge, so I said something like "basically, we're redeveloping it to make it work more efficiently" and everyone laughed. I don't get it. What I said was a) true and b) about the only thing I could think of to say to pitch at their level.

Can any of you think of what I might have missed?

They might have expected more technical details from you because you are well-versed in the project so it sounded sarcastic when you started off very basic

Happens to me too and I hate it... How else are people who don't know anything supposed to understand?

I think maybe your explanation was so broadly worded as to be applicable to just about any project. The goal of every undertaking is to "basically redevelop [something] to make it work more efficiently" unless it's a completely new project. Kind of.

Anyway I feel like they probably found humor in the realization that the project could be explained in such simple and obvious terms. They weren't laughing at you I'm sure if you're concerned about that, just the nature of life in general I guess.

I read that and started laughing myself. I hope you smiled and played it off as a joke lol.

What did your boss say?

My coworkers laugh at me all the time. I don't take it personally. I laugh along with them.

I chalked it up as yet another "NTs laughing inexplicably" moment and buried my head back in my phone. Boss said something like "Thanks for that, [my name]" with something like an amused or possibly sarcastic tone.



I don't really consider those people co-workers; for all we have to do with those teams we may as well work for different organisations. I didn't take it as a real insult, more just confusing...

I wonder if this could be one of those situations where the social rules say that you shouldn't be 100% truthful. Maybe most NTs would come up with a way to make their work on the project sound important without caring whether they were giving an accurate description of what it was about or not. Kind of like padding out the answer to an essay question.

Maybe your answer seemed funny to the others because it was 100% truthful, and as a result it was very short. Kind of like what happens on Doctor Who when the Doctor tries to explain some concept and realizes it's too complicated to go into:

Another possibly amusing aspect of giving a short answer in this situation is that it might give the impression that you aren't worried about what others think. (That's actually a very healthy thing, but it can be funny if it's unexpected!) An NT might be thinking, "I'd better make this project sound really important and make my explanation at least 5 minutes long, so the boss knows I'm working hard."

An Aspie who just answers the question truthfully might sound very casual and relaxed. To others, an Aspie can seem very serious most of the time because of how much thought goes into each thing we say or do (even though I think most Aspies have a great sense of humor). A casual answer creates a reversal of expectations, which is one of the foundations of humor.

Maybe a little bit like Mr. Data from Star Trek making a truthful observation that actually comes across as an effective scolding:



That line makes me chuckle each time I hear it, because Data is not trying to shame Q-- he is just expressing the bare facts of the situation. In fact, Q's own childish behavior is shameful in itself, and Data's dispassionate explanation revealed that more effectively than an intentional insult would have.

(Hey, can you tell I'm a sci-fi fan?)

When you accidentally say something funny, it's best just to roll with it. The worst that can happen is you'll get a reputation for having an odd sense of humor, and that's not bad at all.

If they were non-techies, they were probably relieved not to have to hear details! We have those meetings too and I may just steal your line if I can get a laugh with it .....

I wouldn't sweat it - Most of what goes on in those meetings doesn't even matter anyway, they just hold them so the execs can claim to know what the heck is going on and learn a few new buzzwords to misuse

Yep. There's a certain level of detail that some people expect in a response and there's the "really broad" to the "really detailed"(I.e., technical), and they were expecting a somewhat detailed overview of what was being done, but you went with an answer that was so broad as to be obvious to everyone.

Essentially, you stated the obvious that everyone already knew. Of course you're supposed to make it better/ "more efficient"! Everyone knows that.

It was most likely sarcastic. (He might have been amused, as well.)

- The others would have been aware your attention was on your phone and not the discussion
- in a team meeting if somebody not paying attention is suddenly asked a question then everyone automatically anticipates a funny response lacking sufficient required information.
- The project is complex and the others were expecting you to provide a detailed background
- your response was far too brief, and perhaps (you may not have noticed) your tone was probably terse or irritated because you were asked to contribute when you were not expecting it.
- the brief response was likely woefully inadequate in accordance to the expectation of the team members so they were laughing at your "attitude" toward the request rather than the content of your response.

That is quite possibly true. The thing is, if it had been for a technical audience, I could have very easily provided the requisite level of detail, even with no notice. I honestly have no idea how to do so for an audience of (electronic) paper-pushers, even with days of notice, unless I were to run a 3 hour explanatory lecture.

This happened to me a year ago at a general staff meeting. The new director didn't introduce herself to me and joined my table during a group discussion. I was reading an article when the director asked me to give a short talk to the rest of the meeting group on my project portfolio area. I objected to the suddenness of the request and short notice it was given. I later discovered to my horror who she was. It took a year for her to undermine my position and I left the company.

NT's are so... NT.

I actually asked my boss about it today, he was very apologetic about having given me the question without notice, which I assured him wasn't a problem, and he told me that he believed people found the briefness of the response surprising but in-keeping with what they would expect from me (I wouldn't have thought they'd have me pegged as anything in particular, but there you go), but also impressed the need to sell what we're doing in order to secure future funding. So that all sounds reasonable.